Quick answer: A classic-style survival horror game built by two people in Hamburg over eight years, and one of the best-reviewed indie games of its year. Critics gave it 81 to 84. Players went further: 96% positive across more than 21,000 Steam reviews. It costs $19.99 and runs about nine hours. One thing to know before you start: the credits that roll around the five-hour mark are not the end of the game.
Original illustration created for IGGG Guides.
You play Elster, a technician Replika, which is this universe's word for a manufactured android built for a job. Your ship has crashed. You are working your way through an off-world government facility called S-23 Sierpinski, where everything has gone wrong, looking for the partner you promised you would find.
That promise is the whole game. Underneath the fixed cameras, the inventory management and the shambling things in the corridors, SIGNALIS is a love story between two women, and the horror works because of it rather than instead of it.
Before you play: the credits are a trap
Around five hours in, SIGNALIS rolls credits. They look like real credits. They are not the end.
Keep going. The full game runs to roughly nine hours for a genuine ending, closer to eleven with the optional material. A meaningful number of people have put this game down at the fake-out and told friends it was short and unsatisfying, which is a shame, because almost everything the game is building toward sits on the other side of that moment.
Four endings, and how you earn them
Original illustration created for IGGG Guides.
There are four, and crucially you are never asked to choose one. The game watches how you play across the entire run, the way Silent Hill used to, and decides at the end.
| Ending | Roughly how you get it |
|---|---|
| LEAVE | Avoid conflict. Run from almost everything and fight only when there is no way past |
| PROMISE | Fight everything. Clear rooms without hesitation |
| MEMORY | A balance of the two. Most players land here on a first run |
| ARTIFACT | Hidden. Requires finding well-concealed keys and opening a safe late in the game |
Seeing all of them is a 25-hour commitment, because the tracking runs across a full playthrough each time. Worth knowing before you decide whether nine dollars an hour or two is the deal you are getting.
Players rate it higher than critics, which is rare
Original illustration created for IGGG Guides.
| Measure | Score | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Metacritic, Switch | 84 | Best-reviewed version |
| Metacritic, Xbox / PC / PS4 | 82 / 81 / 80 | Not one negative review on the PC aggregate |
| OpenCritic | 82, "Strong" | 72 critics, 86% recommend, top 14% of all games |
| Metacritic users | 8.4 | 423 ratings |
| Steam | 96% positive | "Overwhelmingly Positive" across 21,000+ reviews and still climbing |
Across the reviews we have worked through on this site, players almost always rate mid-budget games lower than critics do. SIGNALIS goes the other way, and the Steam rating has held at Overwhelmingly Positive as the review count climbed past 10,000, then 15,000, then 20,000. Games do not usually hold a 96% through that kind of growth.
PC Gamer gave it 92, Destructoid 9.5, Nintendo Life 9, Eurogamer called it Essential. The main dissenter was GamesRadar at 3 out of 5, arguing the Resident Evil-derived systems feel mechanical and sap the tension. That is a fair objection and worth weighing if restrictive inventories irritate you.
What it actually looks and plays like
The camera is overhead and fixed, and that choice does real work. Everything is small and distant, which suits a game about manufactured people treated as components. The low-polygon models are deliberate, built to look like a fifth-generation console game that never existed.
The influences are unusually specific and the developers have been open about them: Silent Hill and Resident Evil for the systems, Hideaki Anno for the interface, Stanley Kubrick and David Lynch for the framing, and Tsutomu Nihei of Blame! for the biomechanical body horror. The result is a particular kind of dread, less about jump scares than about cold rooms and things that are wrong in ways you cannot immediately name.
Combat is twin-stick but deliberately awkward. Critical hits need a fully charged reticle, ammunition is scarce, and downed enemies get back up unless you stomp them. The inventory is small enough that deciding what to carry is itself a tactical problem, and the game will spawn new threats in corridors you had already cleared, including between the item box and the puzzle you were walking to.
The puzzles are proper 1990s survival horror puzzles. Ciphers hidden in note margins, passcodes, and a radio Elster can tune to specific frequencies to pick up number sequences. They are solved without hand-holding, which is the point. The first-person sections are the weakest part, slow to turn and awkward to read.
Two people, eight years
rose-engine is Yuri Stern and Barbara Wittmann, two illustrators who studied together at HAW Hamburg. SIGNALIS started in 2014 as a university project and was originally a 2D side-scrolling shooter. The reception to the prototype convinced them to keep going, and the bulk of the game was built between 2020 and 2022 with funding from Humble Games.
It collected a lot for a debut: Best Debut at the German Video Game Awards 2023, the Animated Games Award Germany 2023, and Best Hidden Gem at the New York Game Awards 2023, plus Best Narrative and Best Indie at the Fear Fest Horror Game Awards. Guillermo del Toro presented it at the Tribeca Games Spotlight in 2021, before it had even shipped.
The studio is still two people and has announced nothing since. The last patch was in October 2024. If you are waiting for a sequel, settle in, and read our Axiom Verge review for what that kind of timeline looks like.
Where to get it, and a Game Pass warning
It is not on Game Pass any more. SIGNALIS launched into Game Pass on day one and stayed for the first year only. A great many reviews and recommendation lists still tell you it is free there, and they are out of date. It did appear in PlayStation Plus Monthly Games in August 2026, so PS Plus subscribers who claimed it that month own it permanently. Check your library before buying.
It is $19.99 on PC via Steam, PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch, playable on PS5 and Xbox Series through back-compatibility. Discounts of 30% appear regularly during seasonal sales, which is about as low as it goes. The download is tiny, around 2 GB, so it costs you nothing in bandwidth compared with the installs in our Division 2 review.
Buy, wait or skip
| You are | Verdict | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A classic survival horror fan | Buy immediately | The best modern take on the Silent Hill and Resident Evil template, at twenty dollars |
| Here for story and atmosphere | Buy | It is a love story first and a horror game second, and that is why it works |
| You hate inventory management | Think twice | The restrictive inventory is the most common complaint, including from GamesRadar's 3/5 |
| You want puzzles explained | Skip | Ciphers and radio frequencies with no hints. That is the design, not an oversight |
| On PS Plus | Check first | It was a Monthly Game in August 2026. You may already own it |
| Looking for jump scares | Adjust expectations | GameSpot called it not scary but memorable. It works through dread, not shocks |
Verdict
One of the best things to happen to survival horror in years, and the easiest recommendation on this site. Two people spent eight years building a game that looks like a lost PlayStation release, reads like Evangelion filtered through Kubrick, and holds 96% positive across twenty thousand Steam reviews. The inventory is punishing, the first-person sections do not work, and the puzzles will not help you. Push past the fake credits. Assessed against the current build, patch 1.2.2.
Frequently asked questions
How long is SIGNALIS?
About nine hours for a real ending, eleven with optional content, and around fourteen to complete. Seeing all four endings is a 25-hour commitment because the game tracks your behaviour across a whole playthrough.
Why do credits roll so early?
It is a deliberate fake-out at roughly the five-hour mark. Keep playing. Most of what the game is building toward happens afterwards.
Is it still on Game Pass?
No. It was on Game Pass for its first year after release only. Older articles saying otherwise are out of date. It was a PlayStation Plus Monthly Game in August 2026, so check your PS Plus library.
How many endings are there?
Four: LEAVE, MEMORY, PROMISE and a hidden ARTIFACT ending. Which one you get depends on how much damage you take and how many enemies you kill, not on dialogue choices.
Is it actually scary?
Not in the jump-scare sense. GameSpot described it as not frightening but memorable, which is fair. The effect is dread and unease built from atmosphere, sound and pacing.
Who made it?
rose-engine, a two-person German studio of Yuri Stern and Barbara Wittmann, based in Hamburg. They began it as a university project in 2014 and released it in 2022, their debut game.
Which version should I buy?
Any of them. Switch scored highest at 84 and the fixed-camera design suits handheld well, but all versions review within four points of each other and the content is identical.
Where to go next
- Saturnalia, released the exact same day and also doing something new with horror
- Axiom Verge, another tiny team that spent years on a debut and got it right
- Hotline Miami Collection, the benchmark for a two-person studio outlasting everyone
- Trek to Yomi, another short game that leads with art direction
- Why two people keep beating three hundred
- Why a nine-hour game can beat a hundred-hour one
- Browse more Adventure and Action guides
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